Carnival Sunsets
by Eliza Darling
Summary: Woody and Bo take a walk on the beach. Spoilers for Toy Story 4.


**I saw Toy Story 4 and this scenario just immediately popped into my head. Of course, I ended up sleeping on it and putting off the writing until now, as per usual!**

"**Carnival Sunsets"**

"Hey, Cowboy." Bo gently nudged Woody with her elbow, immediately catching his attention. "Wanna go for a walk?"

Woody's brow furrowed. "What, _now_?" Usually she didn't suggest such impromptu ideas until the carnival had closed for the evening. And tonight seemed to be a little busier than usual—already the gang had run out of toys for kids.

Bo cocked her head toward the shore, just behind the booth the gang currently occupied. "Yeah, I wanna show you something," she pressed, and Woody knew there was no getting out of this.

Besides, when had she ever suggested a plan that wasn't completely thought through?

But the one thing that nagged the back of his mind stood right outside his peripheral vision. "What about the guys...?" They still needed to be kept in line every once in a while, especially when Duke started buying into Ducky's and Bunny's outlandish tales, or if Duke started to lament about Rejean yet again.

"Eh, don't worry about them." Bo waved her hand. "Giggles will keep them in line, won't ya, Gigs?"

Giggles hopped onto Bo's shoulder and gave Woody a salute. "Roger that, Sheriff," she assured. "Nothing to worry about when I'm on the case."

Honestly, that made Woody feel a bit better, though Giggles had a tendency to go off on her own tangents (He-Man was still a pretty sore subject for her). "And the girls?" He pointed his chin down at Bo's sheep, who looked at the two of them, well, almost admirably, he thought.

"They've got their eyes on the boys, too, no need to worry," said Bo, reaching for Woody's hand. It'd been so long since they'd even _had_ moments like this, alone and with little to worry about. The familiar feel of cool porcelain intertwining with his fingers brought him right back to when Andy first started playing with them, and playing with the idea of them as a couple. "Come _on_, or we might miss it."

_Miss it?_

Before he could ask, Bo started tugging for Woody to follow, which he promptly did. If the past few weeks were any indication, it was to just stick to Bo's plans; she'd been acclimated to the lost toy life for _years_ now, and Woody, a novice. Questioning it or acting brashly would just lead to, well... he didn't like to think of the limp Billy, Goat, and Gruff now walked with.

Bo snuck them under the fabric of the booth tent, placed just at the edge of the sand. With the sun setting and the temperature dropping, families started to make their way from the calm, lapping waves and toward the warm glow of the carnival. Woody had gotten used to sandboxes, the texture of the tiny rocks beneath his boots, but there was something different about it here, knowing that a few inches down sand became cool, dense, and even a bit moist, and within all its little dips and curves held an entire world he didn't know about, from stray seaweed to sand crabs burrowed just beneath the surface. With the coast clear, Bo started to walk casually, her hand only tightening around his.

Her words rang in his head again: "_Who needs a kid's room when you could have _all of this_?_"Every time she showed him a new scene, a new change of pace, a new perspective, Woody thought back to Great Basin, how eager he'd been to get back to Bonnie when this all lay right before him. A strange feeling, and something he was still getting used to, this living on his own, for himself, after over half a century being someone's toy. It sure beat Bonnie's dusty closet, Andy's old toy box, and the museum he'd almost been stuck at in Japan.

"I didn't want to miss _that_," Bo clarified, pointing her staff over toward the brilliant sunset, casting shades of orange, yellow, and even pink and purple on the low clouds, sparkling off the water. Her hand squeezed around Woody's affectionately.

His eyes widened, trying to take it all in, from the gentle sound of glowing waves crashing on the shore to the slow descent of the sun nearing the horizon, and the calm breeze that rippled Bo's cape. He could try to describe it all he wanted, but nothing beat the _experience_. "Wow" was all he could say, unable to think of any other word.

"Never got to really see one from here before," said Bo. "It's kind of funny how the same sun can look _so different_ depending on where you are."

Still dumbfounded, Woody just nodded in agreement. They stepped back to avoid the sea foam that threatened to splash against their feet.

"Let's go over there," Bo suggested, nodding toward the high rocks lining the shore, a private cove where Woody doubted any kid (or adult) would dare tread. He followed dutifully, and while Bo climbed the rocks effortlessly, he still had to admit, he wasn't used to this type of terrain.

"Still learning those new tricks, Cowboy?" she teased, handing him the end of her staff to hoist him up.

"Hey, you even said it yourself—I'm doing better than the rest of the gang," he countered. Bo accidentally yanked him up a bit too hard, almost causing Woody to crash right against her.

"Howdy," he chuckled, tipping his hat back.

"Howdy, yourself." Every time she smiled like that, with that slight edge of coyness, he felt weak in the knees.

Bo pulled him down to sit with her, and Woody adjusted to get more comfortable (well, as comfortable as one could get sitting on a rock). She settled against him, their hands intertwined as they silently took in everything. The carnival would be leaving soon; this might be their only opportunity to see a sight like this for a while—or ever.

Just as the sun was about to disappear beneath the horizon, Bo asked, "Did Andy or Bonnie ever take you to the beach?"

The memory brought a fond smile to Woody's face. "Yeah, Andy did once, right after..." The smile dissipated just as he realized it was the summer _right after_ Molly had given Bo away.

Catching on, Bo just nudged him gently. "It's okay, honey. Go on."

He had to remember that Bo, despite being made of porcelain, wasn't fragile anymore; she was genuinely interested in the story, pulling her knees up to her chest.

Woody cleared his throat. "Mom only let Andy and Molly take a few toys. So Molly took the Barbies in these new bathing suits Grandma had sent—with the Corvette, of course—and Andy took—"

"You and Buzz and Jessie," Bo finished, chuckling.

Had Andy been that's predictable back in the day? Now that he thought about it, it _had_ always been the three of them at every outing, every time Andy went to camp up until he stopped playing with them. "Yeah. We didn't stay out this late, though. Molly fell asleep in the sun and had a pretty terrible sunburn, but we did help Andy build this great sandcastle that he had us play around..."

Bo squeezed his hand. "Well, even if it got cut short, it still sounds wonderful," she hummed.

They sat in silence again, watching the dark blues start to overtake the sky, the glow of the carnival becoming more prominent. Woody reminisced on how warm the sun had been that day, how frustrated they'd all been with how sand seemed to get in between all their joints.

"Did Buzz and Jessie ever get their moment while you guys were out there?" Bo teased, her cheek resting on Woody's shoulder. "I can imagine how nice a date on the beach would be."

"If you can believe it, their 'moment' didn't come until Andy almost left for _college_," Woody explained.

"Really?" Bo shot up, her face shocked, as if that couldn't possibly be the truth. "_That_ long? But they've liked each other for _years_."

"In between Buzz's naïveté and Jessie's enthusiastic energy, I guess things just really didn't click until then." Of course, leave it to a life-threatening adventure to bring all that emotion forefront.

But that was a story to tell Bo another time.

"I think this is the first time I've seen you really smile over an old memory, instead of being sad over it, or quiet," Bo pointed out.

"The scenery helps," Woody replied, said smile faltering slightly. "I suppose it hurts a little less every day."

It also helped that, with his lack of a voice box and Sheriff's badge, and mismatched stitching in his arm, he wouldn't be a target for greedy collectors like Al. Even looking under his boot, with all the traveling he and Bo had done since leaving with the carnival, both Bonnie's and Andy's names had started to corrode away, blending into some strange mishap of crude lines, as if to solidify his lost toy status.

When he first noticed it, he tried not to let on just how much that stung.

"I know I keep saying it, but nothing in the world makes me happier than you being here." Bo could always read him so well, could always tell when he needed to hear that. She also knew if he _really_ wanted to see the gang again, nothing could possibly stop him.

"Without you, Bo, I don't think I'd ever be able to see anything like this," Woody countered, not wanting her to feel guilty. This was _his_ decision, after all.

Her lips grazed his cheek. "I sometimes have to pinch myself, like I can't believe you're here. But..." Sighing, she just told him everything he needed to know by laying her head on his shoulder. This whole world was theirs for the taking, from this dimming horizon to wherever they next desired.

Woody and Bo kept their backs turned to the carnival, watching the fireworks from their sparkled reflections on the waves.

**This is prolly gonna be the only Toy Story thing I end up writing unless that human AU I'm thinking about ever decides to flesh itself out a bit more (prolly as a series of vignettes or something?). **

**As always, favorites and comments are always appreciated!**


End file.
